The typical proportions of a Chinese diet are similar to the diet that our ancestors ate in the past.   It can be divided into three main groups in these approximate quantities:

• 40 – 45 per cent of vegetables as well as some fruit.
• 40 – 45 per cent of grains and carbohydrates – the Chinese typically eat a large amount of rice and in the north they mainly eat millet.
• 10–20 per cent of rich foods such as meat, fish, seafood and eggs, dairy products, fats and oils and sugars.

As the West has grown more affluent we have changed the proportions of food we eat until our ‘normal’ diet has been turned on its head.  Westerners now commonly eat a diet containing a large amount of rich foods that have strong tastes.  We often eat only a small proportion of the grains, beans and vegetables that should be a staple part of our diet.

 Chinese medicine considers richer foods, such as animal products, dairy products and other fats, to be ‘special’ and extremely nourishing – but only in small quantities. Excessive amounts of these foods are harder for our digestion to assimilate.  Eaten in large quantities they will end up upsetting our digestion and the balance of our health. 

 During the 1940s when British people were eating a rationed wartime diet they were eating more in line with these quantities.    At this time coronary heart disease and many other illnesses were at an all-time low during this period.  Comparing the average British diet in 1948 with more recent years we now eat 50 per cent more meat and twice as much cheese, but less than half as much bread, potatoes and other carbohydrates – an astonishing difference! The wartime diet was much closer to the Chinese diet than it is now.

 A diet based on grains and vegetables is central to most cultures. Two other well-researched diets are the Japanese diet and the Mediterranean diet. These diets were carefully measured during the 1960s and both use similar proportions to the typical Chinese diet.  The life expectancy for Greek people who ate this diet during the 1960s was among the highest in the world. At the same time the rates of many cancers, coronary heart disease and other diet-related chronic illnesses were at their lowest level, despite far more limited medical services than those available today. Going back to writing down what you eat – write down what you eat for a day and see if it conforms to these quantities.  I’d love to hear what you found. 

(By-the-way some of this is taken from Angie’s book 77 Ways to Greater Vitality by Angela Hicks, published by Spring Hill in December 2008, ISBN 978-1-905862-25-2).